Reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel is practiced in the U.K., France, Japan, India, and Russia but was banned in the U.S. back in the mid 70s under both the Ford and Carter administrations. The fear has been other countries using these same reprocessing techniques to extract plutonium for non-civilian purposes. And so, as of today, an estimated 64,000 tons of spent fuel has accumulated and sits on the sites of 65 U.S. nuclear generating power stations. These materials will remain radioactive for thousands of years. Reprocessing nuclear fuel --a process by which plutonium is extracted and then converted into MOX nuclear fuel that can be used back in the same traditional nuclear reactors-- would reduce the volume of high-level nuclear waste by about 20 percent, and levels of radioactivity from the waste of reprocessing also decay much faster. But that would still leave 80 percent of high-level waste sitting on the sites of nuclear plants. TerraPower, backed by Bill Gates, is working on a reactor that would allow the nuclear fuel to remain inside the core, while slowly undergoing fission for 40 years vs. the typical one and a half to two years in currently operating U.S. reactors. In that scenario, one would only need to worry about spent fuel storage every 40 years, at which point the spent fuel rods would have already reached a very low level of radioactivity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Futuristic U.S. Power Reactor May Be Developed Overseas

By Peter BehrThe New York Times06/31/2011

The TerraPower "wave reactor" concept is backed by Microsoft's Bill Gates, is endorsed by Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman Jr. and has gotten a receptive ear from President Obama's Energy Department.

But it's headed overseas for its next crucial step, if ongoing negotiations with a foreign sponsor are successfully completed, says Roger Reynolds, TerraPower's technical adviser.The Bellevue, Wash., startup says it has verified the theory behind its slow-burning reactor through supercomputer simulations and now needs to build a pilot version of the reactor, to evaluate how the metal fuel casings in the core will withstand decades of radioactive bombardment.The reactor is designed to run for 40 years or more without refueling as it steadily consumes most of its original fuel supply. Thus it remains intact, disarming concerns about long-term spent fuel storage or the theft of nuclear material during refueling or fuel reprocessing, the company said.Reynolds said the plant won't be built in the United States."We've had conversations with the Chinese, the Russians, the Indians, the French," Reynolds said in an interview. "We have an aggressive schedule where we think it is important to get something built and accumulate data so that we can eventually build them in the U.S. Breaking ground in 2015, with a startup in 2020, is more aggressive than our current [U.S.] regulatory structure can support."Read full article here

France found its equivalent of a carbon tax! It simply banned fracking shale gas altogether. With 90 percent of its electricity coming from nuclear power, France is protecting its nuclear interests from the potential cheap natural gas alternative. France’s 58 nuclear reactors are operated by Electricite de France (EDF), approximately 90 percent of which is owned by the French government.

The ban also keeps environmentalists happy. Fracking is bad for the environment – though the fracking industry would argue that there are no studies to substantiate any of these environmental risk claims – and natural gas power plants, while cleaner than coal plants, still emit a lot of CO2.

Though nuclear generation has close to a zero carbon footprint – it does not emit carbon –, French environmentalists would still like to see nuclear power go away. But with no natural gas plants in the country, I don’t see what alternatives there are to replace France’s base load power (some private groups acquired some old coal plants betting that with all this green wave going on, old cold plants might need to come to the rescue). At this time, France is slowly but surely ramping up its renewable capacity, as renewable share will have to reach 23 percent of electricity consumption by 2020 as set by the European Union.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~France Vote Outlaws ‘Fracking’ Shale for Natural Gas, Oil Extraction

By Tara PatelBloomberg News07/01/2011

French senators voted to outlaw hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, making France the first country to pass a law banning the technique for extracting natural gas and oil.

“We are at the end of a legislative marathon that stirred emotion from lawmakers and the public,” French Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said late yesterday before the vote. Hydraulic fracturing will be illegal and parliament would have to vote for a new law to allow research using the technique, she said.

Energy companies that plan to use fracking to produce oil and gas in France will have their permits revoked and its use could lead to fines and prison, according to the law passed by a vote of 176 in favor, 151 against by the senators in Paris.

Lawmakers of the ruling UMP party voted in favor of the bill while the opposition Socialists rejected the proposal for not going far enough. Before the French vote, the ban had moved between the upper and lower houses of parliament since March.

Fracking, widely used in North America, uses a mixture of water, sand and chemicals injected under high pressure to break dense rock to release trapped oil and gas. Green groups and politicians led protests across France, saying the method could cause environmental damage. Government ministers and industry representatives say it is the only method currently available to extract hydrocarbons from the rock.

Ban ‘Deplored’

Oil companies operating in France “deplore” the French ban, according to the Union Francaise des Industries Petrolieres, or UFIP, which represents Total SA (FP) and other explorers and refiners. UFIP, it said in a statement, “considers that the law will prevent an evaluation of shale hydrocarbon resources and their impact on the French economy.”